Friday, December 28, 2012

It may be a bit dark, but I find it way cool that someone went through the trouble of remaking the classic "EVE Never Fades" video with current graphics (OK, pre-Retribution so no frilled Vagas). Add that to the fact that I had an utterly great time yesterday in the space lanes of New Eden with my buddy Havegun and some of his The PvP friends. After killing a n00b Imicus I died to Array Aggression of the Board Of Education corp (I know, I aggressed on a gate but Array had awesome timing and caught me pants down), and soon after learning he was friends with Havegun was invited to join a little roam. We first killed a Hurricane (didn't get much damage on him cuz I got on grid a bit late... did get the killmail though!), and a bit later had a successful encounter with two Tusker Drakes in their home system! We found our way to Black Rise but died in a glorious fire (the Vigilant wasn't with us btw).

Awesome evening for some EVE play especially as Montreal got a massive record snow dump of a foot and a half in one day!

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

For the first time in what is usually known as "way too effin' long" I have a true blue, 100 proof, 24k (ok, 18k) gold EVE Online blog post! If you don't know that EVE's Retribution expansion came out last week with its changes and tweaks and goodies, you're probably on the wrong blog. But no worries, even for a vet like me some changes were so deep I spent the entire download and install time reading up on the patch notes and dev blogs that explained all the new stuff in more detail, and there was a lot of stuff.

At every major expansion or patch since I've first started playing EVE in 2008 I've asked this simple question upon logging in: what did the vikings break this time? Well, I have to admit that since Crucible I haven't really had to ask that question much. Apparently someone is learning, and that's good! No my first chats after laoding up the new expansion wasn't about broken stuff, but about new skills. A new branch of the Electronics tree had just sprouted: sensor compensation skills, in Gravimetric, Ladar, Magnetometric and Radar flavors. I immediately opened my character sheet to find out what I could train and yep, those four plus a few more were there so off to the nearest school station I went to purchase the skillbooks. I also picked up the Micro Jump Drive Operation skill but I have no idea when I'll actually use it as I almost never fly battleships. I do think they'll be useful on a Sniper BS; imagine it... get your gang on a gate, align to X, hit the MJD, and voila, instant sniping optimal range. Could be useful.

But as you've seen in my previous post the feature I was waiting for the most was the new Stabber hulls. I've been ecstatic about those ever since the first screenshots came out and i wasn't even subscribed at the time! And sure enough the first thing I did once the station environment loaded up was to get into my Vagabond and shed a tear of joy. It's more beautiful that it's ever been before. But I was in for an even bigger surprise. My good budddy Letrange had dropped in for the occasion and upon seeing me started asking "Dude, did you see the Stabber?" "Well yeah, it's nice and all... I'm sitting in my Vaga right now!" says I. But I was in for more. "No no no. The Stabber. If you have one were you are get in it!" Wow, I've rarely seen Let this excited. Of course me being me I always have like 2-3 Stabbers on hand ready to go waste wherever, so I activate one. "OK, open your fitting window now" says Letrange. And at this moment my eyeballs jump out of my skull. One extra low slot, one extra mid* slot, no more useless drone bay, and power grid to spare. I already had a decent fit for the Stabber which I had called the WannabeVaga, but all of a sudden it was TRULY a baby Vagabond. When I settle on my fit and see the increased tank and DPS, I feel ready to attack anything. Will it be successful? Read on.

The Stabber wasn't the only ship to receive a much needed boost. During a discussion about all the new goodies in Retribution my friend Havegun Willtravel tells me about the Thorax. He had played with the fit a little and I was able to do just a little better. So with two of my favorite ships already so much better it was finally time to start looking for trouble.

On Saturday night I undocked my freshly fit Thorax from Rens and looked at what my options were. There is the obvious Amamake region but being solo as I wait for Havegun to finish whatever he's doing to come join me I decided to head for the quieter low-sec pipe leading to Great Wildlands; in case you didn't know, the door to GW is a mere 8 jumps from the Heimatar market hub. Space was really quiet until I hit Null-sec, but with the small gang not too far from the gate and the 31 in Local there was no way I would get much deeper in a Thorax. Dancing on fire is more fun in an interceptor. I needed to get back to Rens to meet up with Gun anyway. Not only that, it was getting late for my two boys and I had to put 'em to bed. But just as I decided to dock up in the first Hi-sec system, I crossed a Venture pilot who had just jumped into Low-sec. I docked up and wished my boys goodnight, and then rushed back to undock and go back to Uplingur at best speed. I jumped in, warped to the star, hit the d-scan and sure enough the Venture pilot was in space. When I checked the pilot's stats I could barely believe it... only a few days old! Time to teach people some New Eden life lessons! A quick readjusting of the d-scan pointed me to a planet with a few asteroid belts so without hesitation I hit the warp drive towards the first belt. And landed my Thorax right in my blasters' optimal range. The Venture simply didn't have time to react before it was vaporized, and a few seconds later I was holding the capsule in warp scram. "You know what I could do, right?" I said in local, and almost instantly a convo invitation appeared on my screen:

A few minutes later Havegun and I met in Rens and decided to head towards the other part of Heimatar Low-sec, starting with the system of Olfeim. And various ships were flying around! We started combing space and with Olfeim being pretty small it didn't take long. After only one or two warps I landed next to a Vexor and instantly the gloves came off and the fight was on. I dispatched his shields with ease but his armor was a tough nut to crack. "Huh Gun?, you're on your way right?" It was clear I couldn't bring down this particular Vexor alone but at least I was hurting him. Just in the nick of time Havegun arrived and the Vexor melted. I survived the ordeal with about 15% structure left. GF's were given and I docked up to repair the damage. As I did this Gun announced that there was a Rifter and a Bellicose out in space. He gave me a rough idea of where the Rifter was and I warped there. And landed right on it! He had turned yellow from looting someone else's wreck so I could kill him with impunity. I barely had time to loot him that Gun announced that the Bellicose was on the move. Once again I hit warp and get lucky landing right on it. Gloves off and dance started, but almost immediately Havegun and our previous victim in a new Vexor arrived. The fight was on! I call the Bellicose primary as I know it should be a softer target, but it was clear that I was the primary for these guys. The Bellicose died and we switched to the Vexor, but the damage was done and this time I didn't have a fresh ship so I died. But during the ordeal Havegun had remained untouched so he was able to dispatch the Vexor with ease. We then toured the small constellation on the other side of Dammalin after I had reshipped into a Stabber but nothing happened. We had had a great time anyway so we called it a night.

===//===//===//===

Telefunken U47. You'll love it. It's a way of life :)

Now that I could safely say I was back into The PvP, I obviously wanted more. And I really wanted to put the new Stabber through its paces. I had tried it a little bit in the first hours of Retribution but not with any great success; in fact I lost 2 or 3. I did almost solo-kill a Wolf in Amamake but my fun stopped when a Falcon showed up and perma-jammed me; my name appears on the Wolf killmail though! I lost another one to a good Rupture pilot in Mya when I failed at getting to a kiting orbit and passed too close to the Ruppy, getting scram/webbed in the process. I had a rematch immediately after in a 1v1 all Rupture match, but again my opponent had the edge. GF Dragon sir! But back on flying the Stabber, this time I wanted to pay a visit to my old haunts in Derelik, with maybe a quick peekaboo into Curse and Providence. The flight towards Curse was uneventful, but as the saying goes "one does not simply walk into it". There was only a small gang on the Sendaya gate in Doril but Local showed 52. A Stabber may be fast but it's no interceptor! So I decided to head towards Providence and maybe test my apparently neutral status there (this shouldn't last long!) Again, uneventful travel to the G-5EN2 system; in case you don't know, this system is MASSIVE. While sitting at the sun the farthest planet is 102 AU away. Plenty of space for stuff to hide in but no activity was apparent. I then jumped into 9-F0B2 and this time another brick wall. A TEST Alliance gang was having fun with the NRDS locals and it was clear that a battle had just happened on the G-5 gate. With so many hostiles out and the night coming to a close I decided to head back home, albeit very slowly just in case something happened. And a few jumps later, it did.

I land on the Bar gate in Gomati and a -8 Rupture pilot lands at almost the same time. I burn away from the gate as fast as I can to get to my kiting orbit, and as soon as I get passed web and scram range I order my guns and missile launchers to start singing. The Rupture is attempting to do the same but he just cannot keep up with my speed, and I'm hurting him a lot. He then sends me a flight of EC-300 Hornets. I then switch off my guns from the Rupture to point them at the incoming drones. My 20 km orbit gave me just enough space to pop two drones, but the remaining three managed to land a jam cycle. At least the missiles were doing a good job at softening up the Rupture. Time to end this little dance. I start spamming the targeting button praying for the jam cycle to end, and when it finally did I opened fire again, overheating my racks and guns. And then there was bright lights and then silence! GFs were given as I picked up my well-earned loot and then called it a night. As I mentioned before I already loved the Stabber from way back in my BOZO days, but it was always a bit short on tank and firepower. The advent of the sized rigs and their radical drop in price were a big step towards making the Baby Vaga much better, and I did have a fit I was pretty successful with, especially in the aftermath of Marlona Sky's "Night of a Thousand Rifters" event. But the new Retribution-era Stabber, with more tank, much more firepower and a smidge more agility... now we're talkin'! I've seen what a single one can do, but I would love to see what a gang of them will do. One thing is certain, flying around Vagabond style in a ship that is one sixth the price is an awesome feeling. Combine that with the brand new rules of engagement, and EVE suddenly feels like the proverbial phoenix risen out of its ashes. The magic is back and let's hope it's here to stay.

The holidays are coming and this will mean plenty of free time to fly around and blow shit up. We have to get together my corpmates and I and work on a plan, one based on fun and The PvP. There is talk of recruitment in the air, though it isn't decided what kind of pilots we'll be looking for. Same thing with the area of operations and the blue list; being the one that is online the most I have a feeling I'll be handling some corp-level work soon. Haven't done that in a while but it can be great fun. So here's to more awesome The PvP in the days to come and to many many explosions!

Friday, December 7, 2012

This past Tuesday, December 4th, marked the 19th anniversary of Maestro Frank Zappa's death. So it is only fitting that I post one of his masterpieces as I usually do at this time of year. But instead of going for one of the complex and soothing melodies, this time I'm going for pure raunchiness. If you feel this is NSFW, tell your boss he's a fucking wuss !!!

Monday, December 3, 2012

The next EVE Online expansion is upon us. Have you logged in to make sure you have a lengthy skill set in the queue? I just did, and I also took the opportunity to get my pod into my Vagabond. I don't know who is the assclown who decided to remove its frills and made it look like just a reskinned Stabber but I sure hope he got an earful. Anyway, this mistake will be erased tomorrow as the expansion will fix on of my favorite ships.

The new Stabber hulls are only a tiny part of the changes coming to EVE. T1 frigates are getting a huge boost, and a new set of destroyers will be leaving all four races' shipyards. But the change that will affect my play style the most will of course be the new Bounty/Crime system. Before I do something stupid I will have to read up carefully on all the changes because with the crazy fall season I've had with the drumline I admit I've fallen behind on my consumption of EVE information, be they dev blogs, player blogs or podcasts. Ah well, busy guy problems!

Oh and yeah, speaking of drumline, I can finally say I've played on a snare line. Here's me with an awesome toy!

Monday, November 26, 2012

Hello there! I'm alive, and very much so. I'm just spread a little thin these days but it's all good. I may not be as crazy-busy as I was in September/October but life is still flying at break-neck speed as the Rockline drumline still has a few gigs coming up, my own personal music project is starting to take form, the fat guy in red is warming up his transdimentional reindeer drive sled, and I'm trying to keep up with my favorite games in the middle of all this. Phew! That said over the past couple weeks I did have a few occasions to log onto EVE Online but nothing of note happened apart from some chats with some Montreal buddies and with the EVE Radio channel; I take this opportunity to salute the return of YouTuber/Vblogger Mintchip who recently felt the call of New Eden, you know, the "Hotel California Syndrome" :)

Exactly one month after our fund-raiser Metal bash, the Rockline went back to the rehearsal studio in preparation of a drumline clinic we gave in Québec city last Saturday. There was a convention for musical educators and with drumlines and marching bands making a slow comeback there was a lot of interest in our "product"; I don't want to brag too much but we are the hottest drumline in the province of Québec by far, even though there are only 5 or 6. So the plan was to present and explain the inner workings of a drumline by going back to the basics. Each section (snares, multi-tenors, basses and cymbals) was given attention. We then followed up with a simple 8-8-16 warm-up (alternating each hand) as an ensemble but trying to mimick a group of youngsters who had basically never played drums. This was extremely cacophonic but fun and even hilarious at the end when one of the snare players kept playing after our presenter told us to stop! We made it up to our small crowd by doing the same exercise but with the precision expected of a DCI drumline. Ah, much better :)

But of course we didn't travel 300 kilometers just to show a few exercises. Interspersed with various examples and explanations we played three of the tunes from the Wishmaster concert: "Dark Chest of Wonders" which we hadn't played since the show (this was a last minute addition by presenter Jeff Goulet, who is also the arranger of this tune... it's fairly easy anyway), "Storytime", and of course our apotheosis, the "Arabesque" drum feature. Even though we only had a small "crowd" of 30-40 people - maybe 50 because convention goers were coming in and out - the reaction was awesome each time we played, and greater as each tune increases in difficulty; where "Dark Chest" doesn't need a lot of practice and feels more like a warm-up, "Storytime" has a few tricky parts, and "Arabesque" is not only a challenge to play correctly, but a lot of movement is involved (see the video here) and collisions must be avoided at all cost. And this is before the "octopus" effect. Yes, arranger Michel Pilon knew he was dealing with a bunch of DCI vets and in what was presented as a battle between Wishmaster's drummer and the drumline, he wanted to make sure that we won!

And now that this is done, what's in the future for the Rockline? Well, resting on its laurels isn't in the plans. Next sunday we will participate in the shooting of a videoclip for only a simple part of eight bars but it's mostly for a visual effect. But as simple as this is the video shooting will allow me to finally realise a great big dream of mine: because the video part calls for it and because I've proven I can play some decent traditional grip rudiments, I will be introduced to the snare line. And on top of it we will be carrying the things! I don't care if it's only a temporary promotion for only eight bars, this will be a very powerful moment for me. The fact that it will be shot on video is great bonus. To say "I cannot wait" is a ridiculous understatement! So needless to say I've been hammering those double stroke Fives and Flam Accents like mad ever since last Tuesday when Jacques asked me "can you play me a Five?" before the rehearsal started. I confidently answered "singles or doubles?", perfectly executed hand-to-hand doubles, and then starting only from the right hand using traditional grip. The funny part is that one of the massively talented tenor players declined the invitation to play the snare line because she lacked the grip skills. Well, for this video she can have my bass drum :))

Friday, November 16, 2012

After spending the best part of a year drumming away with Drum Corps sticks, going back to my kit sticks felt all sorts of weird. Apologies to Mr Simon Philips but the Pro-Mark 707 model just doesn't do it for me anymore. So like a Hogwarts student with a broken wand I had to go shopping again, and find MY stick to use on the kit. So off to the Montreal version of Ollivander's I went and two sticks came out of the crowd. I don't want to do any favoritism or anything but to me when I started trying all brands of sticks one brand was clearly ahead of the game. Sorry Pro-Mark!

To me, both pairs feel totally awesome but very different in very subtle ways. I will have to test 'em very thoroughly to find out which pair really out-does the other one. It shall be interesting!

Fly loud!

o7

PS: Yes, my EVE posts have been... nonexistant lately, but that's what happens when you are passionate about tons of stuff. I happen to be passionate about drums. Live with it :)

Morning After Edit: I've spent a good two hours on the pad with both pairs trying all kinds of stuff at different levels of speed and power, from delicate buzz rolls to slamming rimshots, and it was only when I started playing along to some tracks that a winner came out on top. The Thomas Lang model is very nice and all, but when I started moving my arms to simulate playing a kit they felt nowhere as good as the Gavin Harrison model. The ultimate test will be when I play an actual kit. Soon :)

Friday, November 9, 2012

The EVE front has been meh lately... not because of stuff in-game or un-interest, but just because I always find something to do XD Activity should be on the rise soon as my corpmate should be about done being busy working with some game about some dude assassinating other dudes during the Civil War. Yeah, that game.

Monday, November 5, 2012

The sudden break from all-out drumline rehearsal rush means I've been getting back into my gaming hobby something fierce. While I do try to keep on top of my drumming form, at least I don't have to go places every other day to meet up with the rest of the drumline and fine-tune every bar, every break, every stick opening, etc. I can do my own practice casually. This gives me plenty of time to be active at my 'puter doing the things I love, which is a good mix of flying the New Eden space lanes and exploring and adventuring throughout the province of Skyrim, carefully avoiding low-flying arrows. When summer was just starting and the drumline rehearsals started getting serious I was already unsubscribed from EVE but my computer was starting to die while playing games. It turned out it was my video card that was roasting alive and a quick swap later the computer was running like new. There is only so much drumming I can do before I need to frag something!

Over the summer I played a lot of Fallout 3 because I found it was easy to get in and out of my game, but I was avoiding getting back into Skyrim because I knew what all Elder Scrolls games do to my own personal space-time continuum. So I waited until after the show to dive back in, and I rejoiced when I did because the game was running so much better than even before the old video card started dying. And of course because I play Skyrim on a computer and not a console (cue Nelson Muntz "HAHA!") I dove right back into mods, updating some that needed it, removing some superfluous ones, and browsing Skyrim Nexus for anything of interest that may have come out during my summer hiatus. I haven't bought the Dawnguard and Hearthfire DLCs yet but playing the game with mods I already have so much more; though there are more and more mods appearing that require one or the other DLC so I just may get 'em soon-ish.

While I do have some weapon and armor mods, and also some HUD mods and even a few for the environment (Morning Fogs is awesome), my main interest has always been player abodes, from quaint little cabins and camps all the way to fortified castles as big as cities. I try to look for mods that meld seemlessly into the vanilla game; a lot of people give modding a shot and sometimes the results are either buggy or atrocious, or both. When a castle sticks out of the landscape like an eyesore I will avoid it like the plague. Or sometimes the setting is really nice and all but the insides turn out to be a gawdy over-stuffed laggy mess where the modder tried to cram every single object the Creation Kit will allow. And once in a while a jem pops up. For the longest time I've been using the Dovahkiin Hideout which is like a small Bat-Cave giving access to all the game's original player houses, and a couple other areas like the Ragged Flagon and the Archmage's Quarters. It's very well made but now being used to playing with a god-like character (don't laugh; the Deadly Dragons mod can chew up a level 81 character with max skills and all perks with ease if set properly) and having completed the entire game a few times I felt it was time I moved in somewhere more approriate to a Dragonborn who is Thane in all the holds, Archmage, Listener and all-around bad-ass.

A few mods looked promising but unfortunately fell into either of my previously mentioned categories. Two mods got my attention for a while, Deus Mons and Dragonius Tower, but both were causing my computer to glitch out, and the latter mod to crash to desktop repeatedly so I had to keep looking. And then I found it, Rendspire Palace. Located in a canyon set inside the mountain situated between Bleak Falls Barrow and Whiterun, the first hint of the place is the wooden stair path leading up to a small horse stable and a cave entrance next to a single Greybeard statue. The canyon reminds me a bit of the location of Hircine's quest, with a deep mountain clearing complete with waterfalls, pools, vegetation, and one big building with Solitude architecture. The fun part is that the castle itself is a mini-quest as you have to do some serious exploring to not only visit the place but to discover all the teleporters located within. These are pretty much essential unless you want to take all your time walking around; the secret smithing area is very deep below the castle, and the secret (and epically massive) armory is inaccessible until you've found and unlocked its teleporter, and defeated a vampire which... well I gotta stop talking now :)

The EVE front is a bit quiet these days; I want to give my buddy's corp a chance but us Montreal players are having multiple schedule issues, so sorry if I don't have many New Eden stories these days, but at least my #2 game is still very interesting to me and modders are expanding far beyond what the original game offered at launch. To me, if you're not playing Skyrim on a computer, you're not playing Skyrim. Or at least a very tiny part of what the game can actually be. I'll leave you with some screenshots of my Tamriel-based home; I have a Sovngarde-based home on the way soon but I need Dawnguard before I install it. And maybe a new machine. Yes... soon™ :)

Monday, October 29, 2012

As I'm typing this, Hurricane Sandy is just about to hit the Atlantic City seaboard. With a size covering a swath of land that goes from North Carolina up to James Bay, and west all the way to the Great Lakes, this beast is one of the baddest storm ever recorded, and it's about to hit one of the most populated area on the planet. May the Force be with us.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

I sort of managed to skip the Friday video! My post-show week was a bit crazy and this is a parental duty weekend so yeah. For the last sortie with the drumline it's looking like we'll be doing a percussion meet, kind of like the one I went to last year that allowed me to meet these fine people. Something tells me this meet will be popular because we put a huge dent on the music scene last week and now a lot of people who didn't or couldn't come to the show want to see the Rockline in action. We shall not disappoint!

On the EVE front, I am back to pretty much full activity. It was slower starting than I thought after the show because I was totally brain-dead but towards the end of the week I finally got some The PvP with my buddy Havegun Willtravel. He was in a Rifter trolling some F.E.R.A.L. guys in Gallente Low-sec when I hooked up with him. We fleeted up, and when I got ready to engage he called the "warp to me" and told me to hit the Rupture. OK, warp drive active! Being in a Hurricane this was easily done, along with a Harpy and a Rifter for good measure. Three kills in a single pass. Man than felt good! Gun had to take a phone call which gave the enemy a chance to upship, so when we engaged again they did so with three 'Canes and a Drake, and a shit-ton of ECM drones. Ah well, all in good fun! I also lost another 'Cane later in another engagement, this time to a Pilgrim giving an awesome warp-in on me. And more ECM drones. Yeah, these guys love 'em!

So now I can finally say it, I'm back. And not giving a flying fuck about losses is awesome. May the gods of The PvP rejoice at all the pretty 'splosions I intend to give 'em :))

After seven months of regular practice, and pretty hardcore at that in the last month, The Wishmaster OES 2012 event may now be a thing of the past, but the memories from this most awesome day will remain forever. Even though we had to work hard the entire day from 8AM up until show time, it was great to do so in the comfort given to rock stars. And as we had planned, the effect of having the marriage of Drum Corps and Metal was absolutely devastating. From the opening punches of Scaretale to the gigantic finale of Ghost Love Score, everything was dead-on with the precision of an atom clock. And the power... ZOMG the power! Having my already ridiculously powerful bass drum miked and hearing it assaulting the venue's walls was a truly awesome feeling. I would definitely do this again! It put a serious time constraint on my schedule but with results like this I'd be stupid not to do it again.

And hey, I can say I've realized one of my dreams: I am now part of a top-flight drumline that played the equivalent of FOUR Drum Corps shows in one evening. And wait till you see the drum feature! I'm waiting for a good video of it to come out, and I'm sure it will, to post it here. The house had already been brought down by the two opening bands, Opened Fist (tribute to System Of A Down) and Alcoholica (tribute to Metallica) so what we did was blow the remains of the house clear across Ste-Catherine street :))

And now I can go back to a somewhat regular schedule. The Rockline will be taking a well-deserved break and we'll see where it goes after. I've heard that we may skip 2013 for the big event because Wishmaster is also going on hiatus after a 25+ show summer tour, guitarist Tony Batal becoming a dad to a little girl, and drummer Alexis Serré's girlfriend expecting a baby soon™. But I'm keeping my eyes and ears open. In any case if there's a gig for the Rockline (without necessarily 45 minutes of drumline parts to learn), director & instructor Jacques Charbonneau has my number and he knows he can count on me on the bass line.

In the word that has become the Rockline slogan, it was totally SDEMMEY !!!

o7

I'm on bass #4 this time, stretching my neck to see the drum major!

The crowd, with EVE MTL pilots Ilinane and Cartboard Box up front and center :)

Meet La Drumline Rockline! Yours truly is on the far left.

Edit for Facebook users: Here's links to all of Quebec Metal's photos...

Friday, October 19, 2012

As busy as fuck as I am less than 48 hours from the event that's taken over my entire life, I just had to post this Friday's video. I guess some French kid decided he had enough of the "white flag" thing. He picked up a guitar, and now he's on a mission to utterly destroy your brains!

For those interested, on Monday when I log back in EVE it will be as an active player. I hear can-flipping is interesting these days... >:)

Saturday, October 13, 2012

You may have noticed I skipped the Friday video post. Sorry about that but as the meme says, shit just got real. The fruit of the drumline's labor is in sight with only seven days to go before showtime and until the final punch is hit next Saturday night that's where all my energy will be focused.

And on Sunday afternoon whenever my body decides to wake up, I will have to sacrifice a few ships to The PvP gods.

Friday, October 5, 2012

Yes I know. The sound is bad, we can't hear Anissa really well, etc. But still, this is an idea of what to expect at the Wishmaster OES 2012 event. Yours truly is on the 32 inch monster bass drum nicknamed "The Beast". It will be awesome :)

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Not even two and a half weeks to go until The Big Show, and it totally feels like it. Over the next two weeks we will have two ensemble rehearsals, two sectionals (at least for us in the bass line) and the general with everybody involved, which means Wishmaster, The Rockline, the dance troop, the circus troop, and the Diplomates horn line. A lot of my spare time is spent listening to the six Nightwish tunes over and over, playing my parts whenever I can, and for our drum feature I also have some steps to memorize to make sure I don't ram someone when show time comes. Yeah, after the show is done it's gonna be great to take a break from music and start the pew-pew antics in EVE.

I will also get my baptism of fire in Airsoft. All summer long I was seeing the invites for various games from my buddy Moogy over at Taktik Airsoft and most of the time it was conflicting with either my rehearsal or my parenting schedules. Not having to memorize an entire binder full of little black dots will free up a lot of time, but I do have some basic gear I need to acquire before I even think of going to an Airsoft game. For starters I need the obligatory protection gear and some cheap clothes I won't mind getting dirty; I intend to play Airsoft the way I play Quake, which means I'll run a lot, fall a lot, die a lot, etc. I've been told there's always room for suicidal nutcases like me in Airsoft teams and I intend not to disappoint! I'm also working towards the purchase of my Umarex H&K G36cv replica and all the gadgets surrounding it, which means batteries and charger, spare mags, maybe a red/green dot sight and tactical grip, and of course a carrying case or bag; one does not simply walk around with an assault rifle replica! After I have the basics I'll start looking at better and more practical gear but there will be no pressure and no rush. In any case, I can't wait to play a live-action First-Person Shooter :)

On the EVE front the arrival of the colder weather will mean more activity. Cartboard Box and I will start stoking the fire of his corp, Chez Stan. The main purpose will be The PvP but we're not sure which kind of The PvP yet. Will it be Null-sec based? Will we go into Faction Warfare? Will we do wardecs? Will we go full pirate? It's all up in the air right now. On my side I've been logging in sporadically these days to keep in touch with the game, but I haven't had the chance for say a full evening of EVE since the end of my vacation. This will be dealt with as soon as the show is done. I've taken the Monday and Tuesday following the show off because I know the post-show adrenaline high will make me go to bed late on Sunday morning, giving me self-induced jet-lag. What will follow the show will be two days of Sweet Fuck-All, or in gamer terms, a 48h gaming session. I will definitely paint killboards red, with both kills and losses :)

Anyway, 16 days to go before the show and excitement is reading high on the OMFG-meter. It's a lot of work but I can't wait to hit the stage and get it done!

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

One thing is absolutely certain, my vacation is over. In the three days since my return to business-as-usual I've gotten up earlier than ever because I had to help out my ex with our boys who crashed at my place on Monday night after their karate session, taken my drumkit apart in preparation of an eventual band project (I has one), gotten on top of my work (one good thing of taking three weeks vacation, people have no choice to cover for you and when you come back it's not so bad; I've had worse returns after only one week), and practiced drums with the drumline. And this is far from over because we are now just over three weeks before The Big Show.

We've now gone from one rehearsal every two weeks to every week, with two weekend events planned on top of it. The last and obvious one is the general rehearsal for the show with all the participants basically to setup the stage positions and a quick run-through, but the most important one will be happening this weekend is what we lovingly call the Death Camp. Two days of nothing but cleaning and refining the six tunes the drumline will be playing on, including a totally kick-ass drum feature. It was supposed to be written simple to be learned quickly, but Michel Pilon, who's been a drumline head instructor at the highest level of the sport, and knowing he was dealing with a bunch of DCI vets (me excluded), couldn't help but throw a few curve balls. He also helped Wishmaster's drummer to build his drum solo so it fits seamlessly in what will become a true drumgasm!

With all the drumming, studying and rehearsing I have to do, all games are going on the back burner. Of course, when one has been a gamer for as long as I have, "One does not simply stop gaming" as the meme goes. I will still log onto EVE for skill flipping and maybe some quick romps through space. I will probably shoot stuff and/or explore places in various other games I play because you can only look at little black dots while listening to a click track for a certain amount of time. The Wishmaster OES 2012 event will be happening on October 20th, and I will be taking a few days off work right after so I can cool down and game like I haven't gamed in a long time.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Last Tuesday I got to see Mr Vai in action, and let me tell you, I'm still slightly radioactive from his powerful electric guitar antics! He even joked about this himself as he told a young girl who got on stage for the audience participation bit of his show by telling her "you might want to step away from my amps if you want to have children someday XD". All in all it was an awesome performance, with a lot of humor in it - It shows that Steve went to the Frank Zappa School of Hard Knocks!

Apart from that I'm slowly coming to terms with the sad fact that my vacation is almost over, and Monday will be the return to harsh reality. I am also less than one month away from the big Wishmaster event and this week we even got the thumbs up from Nightwish! You see they were also in town this week and the Wishmaster band members and a few members of the drumline were attending, and some of 'em were crazy/hardcore enough to wait just outside the tour bus to meet Tuomas Holopainen and Marco Hietala. Yes Montreal is great like that :)

So for the next few weeks I have to concentrate on a lot of drumming as we'll get into the clean-up part of our rehearsals and next weekend is our Death Camp, a drum corps style camp of musical immersion. Should be epic. And of course I'm already thinking about the break I'll take right after the show: I will be taking at least the Monday and Tuesday off (maybe even the entire week, because I can) and will do an EVE Orgy. We will decide what we'll do with Chez Stan and where. I cannot wait :)

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

In 1998 a small game called Half-Life by a small company called Valve took the gaming world by its balls and made it cry "uncle". A nerdy goatee'd scientist called Gordon Freeman became a legend overnight as he clawed his way through the massive Black Mesa Research Facility after an incident called a "resonance cascade" linked our world to a world called Xen and started spawning hordes of bad critters. As if that wasn't enough, when the "help" arrived bullets started flying everywhere and everything was a gigantic mess. And a G-man by the name of Tarquin Smith - who we now know to be a Jovian agent - took control of Gordon's life just when he thought the ordeal was over.

Fast forward to 2004. Tarquin woke up Gordon and sent him to some eastern bloc hell-town now overrun by some extra-terrestrial faction called the Combine for another bullet storm and awesome adventure. To say that the Half-Life games are good is an understatement on the cosmic scale. They brought gaming to what it is today, that is to say as big, if not bigger than the movie industry.

Fast forward to 5 days ago. A small team called Black Mesa Modification Project released the result of a massive task. Black Mesa is basically the original Half-Life game but as opposed to Valve's own Half-Life Source, it uses all of the Source engine's bells and whistles to give the classic game a very modern look. And the result is as brilliant as the original. The beginning will still make you shit bricks and you WILL pray to whatever you believe is holy to find your crowbar and your first Glock.

Monday, September 17, 2012

The dust has now pretty much settled after the roller-coaster that was last week. It started off with a feeling of victory over the return of the Vagabond's frills and the next day it seemed like the world came crashing down. If you've been living under a massive rock, just read this. What followed was the biggest avalanche of sympathy I've seen since John Lennon or Princess Diana. It's been really touching to read everyone sharing condolences, to watch the solemn Goonswarm ceremony, and for my part to participate in EVE Radio's successful attempt at an unarmed "peace mission" roam to NOL-M9 in Delve, once the pinnacle of the Goonswarm vs Band of Brothers conflict, to pay our respects by anchoring cans to the memory of Vile Rat and to light a couple of cynosural candles. We did lose a ship on the return trip but the mission had already been accomplished.

After the massive media circus the question does pose itself: so, what now? Well, Mittens put it correctly: one foot in front of the other, EVE is slowly starting to move forward again. In my case it means I am starting to think about the in-game stuff I'll be doing once the big drumline project is over, just over a month from now. My corpmate/CEO/IRL buddy and I are looking at a few options that will get us some much needed The PvP action. At the same time neither of us want to be too involved in Null-sec politics and/or cap and supercap warfare. We are also looking into opening up recruitment for our corp but we both need to be more active before we start a recruiting campaign, and we also want a few more directors to make themselves interested (unless you know us in real life and come to the Montreal EVE Meets, don't even think about it) but the love for EVE is definitely starting to come back it seems.

The Vile Rat supernova may have slowed down our plans ever so slightly (they were already slow to begin with) but the plans are still forming and it looks like not much can stop 'em. Will you be with us? Will you be destroyed by us? Will we make you cry? All those questions will find an answer somewhere around Halloween. In the meantime I just have to make ready for... something!

Friday, September 14, 2012

No other community, gaming or otherwise, can make a vigil of this kind. Even though I've had my ups and downs I am proud to call myself a member of this community, and I'm always saddened when a member of this community is lost. Lost, but never forgotten. I never got to know Vile Rat in-game or out but I know all he did for Goonswarm, the Clusterfuck Coalition, and for EVE Online as a whole. And he gave his life doing the exact same thing in the real world.

On behalf of the Montreal EVE pilots crew, of which he was a part of for a short time, I send my deepest condolences to Sean's family and friends, to his co-workers, and to everyone at Goonswarm Federation and the CFC.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

A lot of Vagabond pilots have been yelling at CCP for the removal of the heavy cruiser's frills that made the Vaga look not only menacing, but completely different than just a Stabber with a new paint job. Blogger Rixx Javix of Eveoganda was most vocal about this, and I supported the cause even though I was unsubbed at the time. Well, it seems that now CCP has someone in charge of listening to what we say and not just watching what we do. A new dev blog by CCP Ytterbium has just dropped this bomb:

Now with MOAR FRILLZ !!!

And it even has new wingy bits to show once again that the Minmatar like things that are Fucking Vertical™! All in all I really like the new Stabber model as well, especially since I use (lose?) 'em a lot.

Thank you CCP for this much needed rectification on one of your worst design mistakes. All hail the return of the Vagabond, the ship designed just for me :)

Saturday, September 8, 2012

I've always had a fascination with big-ass explosions. I blame it on growing up in the middle of the Cold War. Here is a fine compilation set to Fear Factory's "Resurrection". Awesome as a wake-up tune :)

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Hello all. Didn't think I would be posting the report from my trip this soon but yeah, I had no choice but to turn back after one day and one unbelievably wet night. I was in very high spirits when I left my house; my bike even this heavily loaded was well balanced and very easy to ride, and my padded short meant I could ride almost forever. Here's the timeline of events that lead me to say "fuck this, I am defeated":

On Tuesday morning around 8AM I did the final packing and check-up of the bike, informed my landlord that I'd be away for a while and if he could pick up my mail, and finally headed out. I had printed out a path from Google Maps because I was riding to unfamiliar places, but I will readily admit that the more I looked at the path Google gave me, the more I was questioning it. And I turned out to be right; at one point in Laval the map was telling me to ride 2 km west on Samson blv., then cross a street and ride 1 km east, overpassing a highway twice. That's when I said screw this it's map only from now on.

For a first day of riding the weather was simply perfect. No heat, not too much sun, very light winds, and as I approached the west end of Laval very little traffic. After I left Laval I saw a bit more traffic, but not for long because the long bike path called the Green Route was starting, crossing the towns of Ste-Marthe-sur-le-Lac and Pointe-Calumet. Crossing the towns the path was relatively flat, but as I entered Oka National Park things got "interesting". In the woods the path was a lot more bumpy with the forest doing its best to destroy the pavement, but I was noticing that the path was taking me towards my first real hill challenge.

The road is called Chemin des Collines, which translates to "road of the hills". Believe me, it's aptly named. One hill in particular I had to walk my bike up. At least the reward of those hills was fun downhill rides, and a short time after crossing the park I was in the little town of Oka and stopped for a well deserved break. And a good thing too because just west of Oka is a hill called "The Pinehead", which is the doorway to the native reservation of Kahnesatake. This place is infamous for the 1990 roadblock that lasted the entire summer. Crossing the reservation was interesting; I mean, how many cigarette shacks does a piece of land really need?! Anyway, I kept going until I saw camping grounds somewhere past St-Placide. At this point I was about 90 km into the ride so I told myself that this was a good place to stop for the night. But Mother nature decided otherwise.

About an hour after I had setup my tent at around 5PM the rain started. And it didn't stop until 3AM. All this time in between naps I was pushing away puddles that were threatening to crush me, and at the same time I was listening in on the drama happening around the elections were a looney gunman and shot two people, killing one, in an attempt to get at newly-elected prime minister Pauline Maurois. But back in my tiny universe, the tent was getting so wet that I had to make sure nothing of importance touched the sides. I pretty much didn't sleep all night, except maybe a few hours just before dawn after the rain had stopped. At the break of dawn I immediately did a check of everything. Thank fully nothing got too wet, except the tent which was now soaked through (still is, haven't had the time to find a place to hang it to dry) and there was now no way I could use it again because it would remain wet. But that wasn't the worst part.

I thought I had gotten a good deal on my panniers and I found out just how wrong I was. I can just say I was lucky to get as far as I got because the hooks on one of the panniers had completely been ripped out, probably because of the weight pulling at the bag on the various bumps along the way. I had no choice but to rearrange my inventory to make sure nothing heavy was in the bag and attached it with velcro straps and prayers. So after the crazy night, the rain, the wet tent, and now a broken bag, I took the tough decision and admitted defeat. The ride back home was pretty much uneventful; I had to check the velcro strap on the broken bag quite often but nothing happened, and at around 3PM yesterday afternoon I was back home.

I'm still happy about the 180 km ride and my first overnight, even though it was in the worst conditions one could possibly imagine. Yes I had heard about the possibility of rain but until Tuesday afternoon the weather was really nice. I heard about the bad stuff about to hit Montreal just as I was setting up the tent, and this bad stuff was going to hit me before it hit Montreal.

I also learned a few important things if I'm to do another big trip:

- Do not skimp on your equipment. Ask more questions when you buy it. Check how far you have to go. What kind of terrain you'll be riding. Above all make sure your equipment is tough as nails!

- Along the same lines, do not skimp on the quality of your camping mattress. I paid a huge 27$ for mine. OK, trying to sleep on the worst night ever was hard, but I was telling myself I should have gotten a fancier model. Go see "wallet tanking" further down.

- Be a good Minmatar... CARRY DUCT TAPE !!! I'm still kicking myself for not having thought of this.

- Waterproof your tent. I don't care how good your tent is, do this. Mine is apparently very good, won awards and stuff, but remember this: Mother Nature ALWAYS win. I'm not gonna bash the Topeak Bikamper because its design is very good, and it's super easy to set up. but heavy rains kill it.

- Wallet tanking. I knew I was going to rough it for the first couple days because i was coming out of a weekend with my boys which in english means I was almost broke. But when so much shit happens on Day One and you're low on cash a trip can back-fire. Mine did.

- Buy the best gloves and/or grips you can. I have skimped on those this summer and it was a mistake. I'm getting new gloves today because mine are dead. They may be OK to go to work or for a short ride, but after 100 km I just want to burn 'em. It didn't keep me from riding but for long rides comfort is everything. Remember, you do this for fun, no to suffer!

And that's pretty much it. Not the trip I thought it was going to be but a lot of experience came out of it. Now, I still have 2 and a half weeks to go on my vacation. I do intend to keep a promise to a friend, to go meet up with him at his cabin in Val-David. I just hope Mother nature doesn't become a royal bitch on the day I decide to head out. At least I know I won't have to rough it in a tent !!!

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Welcome to the 39th Blog Banter - the community discussion that stretches across the many communities of EVE Online through the use of arcane bloggery. The conversation is open to all and readers are encouraged to visit all of the entries that will be listed below as the discussion progresses. Be sure to leave your thoughts there when you do.

After a some heavy topics in the last few editions, this time we'll be taking a more relaxed trip through the thoughts of the blogosphere. The origins of this month's concept come from a suggestion from EON Magazine editor Richie "Zapatero" Shoemaker.

"Some say a man's home is his castle. For others it is wherever they lay their hat. The concept is just as nebulous in the New Eden sandbox.

In EVE Online, what does the concept of "home" mean to you?"

Alright let's have a go at this while 1- I'm still in home in Montreal at my 'puter, and 2- this banter is still alive!

Let's see. Over the 4+ years I've been in New Eden I have called a few places home for various amounts of time, from the safest space in the middle of Empire - well, as safe as New Eden can get... it's never totally safe you know - to deep wormhole space. Hey even if it was just for a single op, the logistics required meant I spent over a week in there! Let's go over a short list of the places I've called (still call in some cases) home and I'll finish by what to me is the best dark jewel of the star cluster.

Eram (Metropolis): Minutes after graduating from Republic Military School, I was sent to this system by one Letrange as he had his own home in that neck of the woods at the time. Yes this is where I started the nasty climb up the dreaded Learning Cliff; I was so green that I couldn't even see the overhang! But Letrange and I both knew that I wouldn't be staying there long because after an interview and just slighly more knowledge (very slightly) I was off to...

Berta (Derelik): I've mentioned before that at a mere 3-weeks old I joined the Clown Punchers Syndicate but the springboard to Curse was here. At first I couldn't be with the BOZOs full time because frankly I was so green I couldn't be of much use for 'em. But my thirst for the PvP was so great that I stuck around and flew many a Rifter and Stabber to its untimely demise, but slowly but surely I was getting better, faster and able to understand just what the fuck was going on. I kept asking tons of questions to the dismay of some of the more experienced players but at least I made it up by participating and even performing adequately, until I made the move from Clown College to BOZO proper. By this time I was living in...

Jorund (Curse): This was my first Null-sec home; hey, don't bash Curse because it's NPC space... as a true BOZO at heart I couldn't care less about any Sov bullshit, or moon-goo mining or any other crap you can think of that would make Sov space better. To me it's not. Period. We lived in Curse for one reason only: to kill stuff. And with the traffic we had it was like shooting fish in a barrel. but I'll go deeper on the subject of Curse later. Let's fast forward a bit to a time when planet Seyllin I blew up, and wormholes started to appear left right and center. Needing a break from all-out BOZO killing frenzies and knowing my buddy Letrange would need some combat pilots to train some former high-sec industrialists to the rigors of Null-sec space, I packed my stuff and headed towards the center of the cluster to...

Azer (Everyshore): Its central location made it the perfect place to start exploring this new frontier called W-space. I still have a lot of stuff going on in this area because the location is great! Close to the market hub of Dodixie, right next to a few low-sec pipes to keep us blood-thirsty PvPers happy (ok, we had to keep it "anti-pirate" at the time... me remembers getting flak for killing a TCF cyno XD), and decent proximity to Null-sec space through Syndicate, where incidently the BOZOs had just moved, in the system of...

Poitot (Syndicate): After a few months things got kinda slow for me at AMC and I got restless to the point of going back to BOZO, which had gotten a lot more serious during my absence. But as I got there I was told not to bring too much stuff because a move was being planned. We were heading back to...

Curse! Ah yes, that crazy place was calling again, and this time it was in the system of Hemin. Still a lot of traffic, still a lot of kills. And of course someone who flies as crazy as I do also happens to fail a lot. Where I take failing in stride and just move on, sometimes the brass higher up doesn't take kindly to say, ninja-ratting with a red in system (fully knowing what can/will happen and not giving a shit) or missing what should've been an easy tackle on say a Ferox. At some point the seriousness wasn't fun anymore and knowing that I probably would fail again (and not care) I kicked myself out of BOZO before it was done to me. I just had to go solo a bit and that's when Dock 94, my own tiny corp, was born. And where did I decide to park D94's HQ?

Rens (Heimatar): Believe it or not, at this point the Brutor Tribe Bureau was literally giving away office space! Rens, kinda like Azer, is not badly placed on the star map; no wonder a market hub formed there. During this time I was able to get more ISK from missioning as I now had the skills to do Level 4's, plus once in a while I was giving help to my buddies over at AMC to say, kill a tower or something. But after a while I did miss gang action and a buddy of mine got in touch with some other buddies about to start a little party henceforth known as The Provi War. We set up shop in...

Kheram (Domain): Preparing for the war was more fun than the actual war because, let's face it, the alliance my buddy and I parked our corps in was full of fail. But the whole time leading up to the invasion of CVA space, that was a blast! Low-sec fuckery, killing RP'ers I was already shoot-on-sight with because of my BOZO past, making fun of said RP'ers who I must admit taking themselves waaaay too seriously, etc. But after the invasion the alliance got spread too thin and, yeah... EJECT! The funny thing is I went back to AMC which is essentially an industrial alliance and immidiately found more The PvP! And we found a nice little place to call home Letrange had named...

Chaos Central (Jxxxxxx, W-space): Tons of fun and ISKies were had in here. I can also say were lost in here! I remember a certain multiboxing troll who tought he would make us cry with Hall & Oates lyrics but got disappointed when we just shrugged off our losses. Ahhh, good times! but it came to an end when Letrange took a break from EVE. CC as we came to call it was just one of many AMC colonies in W-space. The one still operating today (not even giving away its callsign :p) is a veritable stronghold. On hit of the scan button will cause anyone to run away screaming like a little girl. One system I can talk a bit more about was called BBW; at around 200au across, yeah she was fat! This is the system where many attempts where made to either kill an AMC tower or to plant a rogue tower, which we utterly destroyed sometimes in hilarious fashion. And there was another one... oh fuck it was deep. A Class 5 pulsar which caused my weird-fit sniper Tempest to have about 275k EHP, with a full gank setup?! Yeah. We kicked out some sleepy russians to get it and it was one hell of a job.

But THE place I would go back to tomorrow if I had the chance. The place that to me had it all, and then some, and when you thought she couldn't give you more she just went ahead and did...

5E-VR8 (Paradise constellation, Curse): By far, THE BEST PLACE I have ever called home in the entire New Eden cluster. I have lived four times in the constellation, once for a short time before the Provi War started in J7A-UR (entry through Catch with AAA as blues had its perks), and once in D87E-A with Ushra'Khan, who at some point did have some links with BOZO. But the two times the Clown Punchers lived there, at the station we came to call BOZOMart, man those were the days! I could fill page upon page of all the funny stuff that happened in here. This is also where I learned the ropes of FC'ing. This is where I killed a Domination rat worth about 120 million ISK just in time to go help my BOZO brothers kill a ratting Nidhoggur (!) three jumps away in JWJ-P1. This is where Tackle-Falcon maestro Loofaro once called for help because he had just caught a Nighthawk next door in K-B2D3 only to belay the order because the Nighthawk was fit with nothing but fail! Ah yes, Paradise. This constellation could not be more aptly named!